Love it or loathe it; either way, you
have to respect it. Lamborghini’ s monstrous V12-powered LM002 off-roader was
built to cross deserts at high speed. So why did we take it to High Wycombe
town center?
Let’s come clean: that headline is not
ours. It was coined by Car and Driver magazine in 1987 for a road test by the
legendary Brock Yates. Frankly, though, it’s too good not to steal. ‘Rambo
Lambo’ sums up the LM002 perfectly. Completely over the top, ridiculously
pumped-up, an epitome of 1980s excess – yes, that’s this Lamborghini in a
nutshell. You will not be surprised in the slightest to hear that Sylvester
Stallone owned one. As did Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
The US freeways, the Libyan deserts: these
are the LM002’s natural environments. Indeed, our feature car was delivered new
to Los Angeles. So why are we driving one around the center of High Wycombe, a
place not widely known for having either broad palm tree-lined boulevards or
expanses of sandy wastes?
Let’s
come clean: that headline is not ours. It was coined by Car and Driver magazine
in 1987 for a road test by the legendary Brock Yates.
Because, quite simply, that’s where the
UK’s and indeed, the world’s leading specialist in these super 4x4s is based.
The Modena Group has now restored half-a-dozen LM002s and remakes a number of
the fiddly little parts that Lamborghini itself can’t supply. And the car in
our pictures, which is owned by a British oil executive (a handy job to have,
if you drive one of these), has had a ground-up restoration of a kind rarely
afforded to these until-recently unloved Lamborghinis.
The LM002 has always been the black sheep
of the Lamborghini family. It has its origins in a 1977 prototype called the
Cheetah that was being pitched as an all-purpose vehicle for the American
military by Mobility Technology International (MTI), who teamed up with
Lamborghini to take advantage of its engineering expertise. The Cheetah which
is shown undergoing testing on page 126 was a rear-engine, tubular-chastised
and glass fiber-bodied 4x4 that was powered by a 5.9-litre Chrysler V8.
Although not fully developed, it made its debut at the 1977 Geneva motor show.
So far, so promising. Trouble was, MTI had
no money and neither did Lamborghini, and the Cheetah needed a lot more work.
Enter a fairy godmother in the unlikely shape of BMW. The German giant was
planningwhatwouldbecometheM1juniorsupercar and commissioned Lamborghini to
build four prototypes, followed by up to 400 production cars on the then mothballed
Espada assembly line.
So
far, so promising. Trouble was, MTI had no money and neither did Lamborghini,
and the Cheetah needed a lot more work.
Lamborghini needed contracts like this
because, due to the recent introduction of Type Approval legislation, it had
suddenly found itself without any products it could continue to sell, other
than the Countach. Now, thanks to some up-front cash from BMW to pay for parts
and tooling, and a loan from the Italian government to underwrite the costs of
the M1 and Cheetah projects, its cash flow situation was eased. But the relief
was temporary. MTI was threatened with legal action by Ford for alleged
plagiarism of its XR311 off-road prototype, and pulled out of the Cheetah
program.
It never rains but it pours; Lamborghini
got behind schedule with the M1, and now it was BMW’s turn to pull out. They
annulled the project and moved production to Baur in Germany, although whether
they ever got their money back is something known only to their accountants… Lamborghini
was left with just the Countach 400S to sell, plus the unfinished Cheetah
project. Not an encouraging prospect.
Then Lamborghini’s rollercoaster bottomed
out and started climbing again. Oddly enough, having an official receiver
appointed in late 1978 was a real stroke of luck, because Dr. Alexandro Artese
happened to be a car enthusiast. He had the good sense to recruit respected
former Maserati engineer Giulio Alfieri for Lamborghini, and that helped boost
morale at the factory and confidence with would-be investors. It’s said that
Alfieri even paid wages for the workers out of his own bank account when times
were particularly tough.
Then
Lamborghini’s rollercoaster bottomed out and started climbing again.
The rollercoaster continued to ascend as
two wealthy Swiss brothers, Patrick and Jean-Claude Mimran, successfully bid
$3m for the company and re-registered it. Things were looking up – and a small
group of engineers at the factory started tinkering with the Cheetah project
again. The Cheetah itself didn’t exist, having been written off in an accident
during testing, so Lamborghini built a new vehicle. Codenamed LM001 – the
initials standing for Lamborghini Militari – it was exhibited at Geneva in
1981. It was still rear-engine, like the Cheetah, and intended to have either a
4.75-litre Countach V12 or a 360ci (5.9-litre) AMC V8. However, testing showed
that the rearwards weight distribution made the front end disconcertingly light
under hard acceleration, so the engineers went back to their drawing boards.
Enter LM002–or, as it was initially known, LMA,
the ‘A’ for Anteriore, because the engine was now in the front. Not only did
this cure the handling problem, but it meant there was room on the deck behind
the cabin for extra bodyguards, soldiers, dancing girls or whoever. The
prototype LM002 was shown in 1982 and entered production in 1986. Lamborghini
would build 301 of them over the next five years but, although it was the car
of choice for some of the world’s less desirable dictators – US armed forces
happily blew up Saddam Hussein’s son Uday’s LM002 in 2004. It was never
actually sold to any foreign armies, Middle Easter nor otherwise, despite what
you may read on the internet. The LM002 was very much a luxury off-roader
rather than the ‘Humvee’ it was once intended to be, back in the days of the
ill-fated Cheetah.
Something
that is quite evident from the interior pictured on the preceding photo-spread.
Something that is quite evident from the
interior pictured on the preceding photo-spread. This late example of an LM002
– it has the desirable alloy wheels fitted towards the end of production,
rather than the steel rims used previously left the factory painted dark
metallic blue with a tan interior, but is now Lamborghini Nero metallic with
cream soft trim. Very supercar.
